Türkiye Inbound Investment Review 2024

Foreign direct investment into Türkiye reached $11.7 billion in 2024, 9.8% more than in 2023, while purchases of Turkish property by foreigners fell for a fourth year. Foreign buyers paid $3.03 billion for Turkish companies in 47 transactions, and a single deal carried much of that value.

This is the 2024 edition of our annual review, prepared in 2026 to complete the series. It uses the revised figures available in September 2026 rather than the first estimates published at the start of 2025, and it says where the two differ. Our 2025 edition covers the following year.

Executive summary

Money kept arriving. Inflows rose to $11.7 billion, and excluding real estate to $8.8 billion. Türkiye grew faster than the world: global FDI rose 4% on the reported measure, and fell 11% once a handful of conduit economies are stripped out.

But Türkiye became expensive. The dollar rose 19.9% against the lira while consumer prices rose 44.4%. In real terms the lira appreciated by around 20%. For a dollar-based buyer, the same Turkish company cost materially more at the end of the year than at the start.

Money was also expensive. The central bank raised its policy rate to 50% in March and held it there for nine consecutive meetings. The first cut came at the final meeting of the year. Acquisitions financed in lira were costly throughout.

The acquisition market was top-heavy. Foreign buyers agreed 47 acquisitions worth $3.03 billion. One transaction — the purchase of the e-commerce platform Hepsiburada — accounted for more than a third of that, and it was the only deal above $500 million in the whole market. Below it, only five transactions fell in the $250–500 million range.

Buyers preferred not to say what they paid. Several of the year's largest transactions, including the purchase of a 96% stake in a Turkish bank, closed without a disclosed price.

Property kept shrinking, and it had further to fall. Real estate purchased by non-residents dropped to $2.8 billion, and the number of houses sold to foreigners fell 32%. Property accounted for 53% of FDI in 2020 and 24% in 2024.

The big picture: more money, fewer companies changing hands

Türkiye received $11.66 billion of foreign direct investment in 2024, according to the central bank's balance of payments as revised through July 2026. That is 9.8% more than 2023.

The components moved in different directions:

• Equity capital, the money foreign owners put into Turkish companies, was $6.2 billion net. Gross inflows were $6.7 billion, 14% more than in 2023 but still below the 2021 and 2022 levels.
• Intra-company loans, lending from foreign parents to their Turkish subsidiaries, rose to $2.7 billion, the highest of the last five years. In an expensive-credit year, foreign parents financed their Turkish operations themselves.
• Real estate fell 21% to $2.8 billion, a fourth consecutive decline.

Seen across five years, 2024 is the middle of a transition rather than a turning point. Property, which was more than half of all foreign investment in 2020, was down to a quarter. Equity capital had begun to recover but had not yet broken out; that happened in 2025, when gross equity inflows reached $9.7 billion.

Other compilers put the year slightly lower, because they measure FDI differently: UNCTAD records $11.0 billion for Türkiye in 2024 and the OECD $11.0 billion, against the central bank's $11.7 billion. All three show growth in a year when global investment was weak. Announced greenfield projects, however, went the other way: EY counted 351 foreign investment projects in Türkiye, 15% fewer than in 2023, placing the country fifth in Europe. Europe as a whole fell 5%.

Where the capital came from

The Netherlands supplied $1.6 billion of new equity capital, about a quarter of the total, followed by Germany ($877 million) and the United States ($738 million). The European Union accounted for 55% of the total, below its 58% share of cumulative inflows since 2005.

As in every year, the country table shows where money was routed rather than where it came from. The Netherlands is the standard location for holding companies, so a large part of that quarter belongs to investors based elsewhere. No published statistic identifies the ultimate investor.

The acquisition data tells a different story from the capital flow data, and the difference is instructive. Dutch buyers made the most acquisitions of Turkish companies (7), followed by French (6) and British (6) buyers. Yet by value, the year belonged to buyers from Kazakhstan, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The gap between the two tables has a simple cause: an acquisition is counted when it is agreed, and the money is counted when it moves. The year's largest transaction was announced in October 2024 and closed in January 2025, so it appears in the 2024 deal tables and in the 2025 balance of payments. Kazakhstan supplied $23 million of equity capital in 2024 and $1.1 billion in 2025.

Where it went, through five sectors

Shares below are of gross equity capital inflows, about $6.7 billion, not of the $11.7 billion headline.

Retail, Trading & Export

Wholesale and retail trade received $1.7 billion, a quarter of all new equity capital and the largest single sector after manufacturing as a whole. It was also where the market's largest disclosed deal value sat: non-store retail accounted for about 19% of the transaction value recorded by the Competition Authority excluding privatizations, in just two transactions. Denmark's DFDS bought Ekol Logistics' international transport network for an enterprise value of €240 million, and 946 new wholesale trading companies with foreign shareholders were registered during the year. Read our sector view.

Technology, AI & E-commerce

The sector's equity inflow looks small — information and communication took only $277 million, 4% — but that number misses where the activity was. Manufacturing of computers, electronics and optical products took $656 million, 10% of all equity capital. In acquisitions, technology, media and telecoms was the largest sector by disclosed value at $2.2 billion, thirteen times its 2023 level. Venture investment in Turkish startups reached $2.6 billion across 331 transactions, of which $2.2 billion came from foreign investors, although more than 40% of that total came from the Hepsiburada transaction alone. Other deals included a $500 million round for Insider led by General Atlantic, a reported $250 million investment in Getir by Mubadala, and the purchases of GlassHouse and Spyke Games. Read our sector view.

Food & Agriculture

Food, beverage and tobacco manufacturing received $378 million, 6% of new equity capital and roughly two and a half times its 2023 level. As in 2025, the investment arrived as equity rather than through headline acquisitions: we found no large foreign acquisition with a disclosed price in food or agriculture during the year. Agriculture is not published separately. Read our sector view.

Fintech & Blockchain

Finance and insurance received $474 million, 7% of new equity capital. The year's transactions were notable for what they did not disclose: Abu Dhabi's ADQ agreed to buy 96% of Odeabank and Zurich agreed to buy NN's Turkish life and pension business, neither with a published price. Elsewhere, Global Payments bought Yazara, MNT-Halan bought Tam Finans, and Mastercard took a minority stake in Dgpays. Fintech was the busiest startup category by number of rounds. Read our sector view.

Real Estate & Construction

Property purchases by non-residents fell to $2.8 billion. Behind that number, 23,781 houses were sold to foreign buyers, 32% fewer than in 2023, with Istanbul and Antalya accounting for most of them. Construction took 3% of equity capital, and 352 new building construction companies with foreign shareholders were registered. In building materials, Taiwan's TCC Group increased its holding in OYAK Çimento as part of a wider partnership. Read our sector view.

Acquisitions: a market carried by one deal

Foreign buyers agreed 47 acquisitions of Turkish companies worth $3.03 billion, according to the Competition Authority, which counts notified transactions and excludes privatizations. That was up from 35 transactions and $2.86 billion in 2023. The Authority puts the foreign share at 44.5% of the value of all transactions involving Turkish companies.

The headline hides an unusual shape. Across the whole market, only one transaction exceeded $500 million, and it alone represented 13% of total deal value. Five more sat between $250 million and $500 million. Below that, the market was made up of small and mid-sized transactions.

Two other features defined the year.

Foreign buyers pulled back in value while domestic buyers advanced. On Deloitte's measure, which includes estimates for undisclosed deals, foreign buyers' volume fell 14% to $4.5 billion while domestic buyers' rose 43% to $4.0 billion. A currency that had become expensive in real terms is the most plausible explanation: for a buyer earning dollars, Turkish assets cost about a fifth more in real terms at the end of 2024 than at the start.

Prices went unpublished. Several of the largest control transactions — including a 96% stake in a bank and a control investment in a quick-commerce business — closed without a disclosed price. This matters for owners: published multiples from a year like 2024 describe only the part of the market that chose to speak.

Notable foreign acquisitions of Turkish companies, 2024

Selected transactions from public announcements. Where the parties did not publish a price, none is shown; where data providers report different figures, both are given.

Market totals differ by source because each counts a different market. The Competition Authority counts notified transactions only. Deloitte counts 423 transactions worth $8.5 billion including estimates. KPMG counts 475 transactions with $5.3 billion of disclosed value and estimates the true total at $10.1 billion. Their measures of the foreign share move in opposite directions — down on Deloitte's basis, up on KPMG's — because one is a share of an estimated total and the other a share of disclosed value.

The operating environment in 2024

2024 was the year of peak monetary tightening, and that shaped everything else.

• Interest rates. The policy rate began the year at 42.5%, rose to 45% in January and 50% in March, and stayed at 50% for nine consecutive meetings. The first cut, to 47.5%, came on 26 December.
• Inflation. Consumer prices rose 44.4% in the year to December. Producer prices rose 28.5%.
• The lira. The dollar rose 19.9% against the lira and the euro 12.8%, both far below inflation. In real terms the lira appreciated about 20% against the dollar, which raised the price of Turkish assets for foreign buyers.
• Growth. The economy grew 3.3%.

Policy moved in the opposite direction from prices, which is to say, toward openness:

• Minimum taxes. Law No. 7524 introduced a 15% global minimum top-up tax for groups above €750 million of consolidated revenue, applying from 2024 earnings, and a 10% domestic minimum corporate tax from 2025. Türkiye collects the top-up tax itself rather than leaving it to other jurisdictions, which makes the Turkish rate predictable for a foreign parent.
• A published strategy. A presidential circular set out the International Direct Investment Strategy for 2024–2028, targeting a 1.5% share of global FDI flows by 2028.
• A high-technology programme. The HIT-30 programme, announced in July 2024, offered a $30 billion support envelope for high-technology and green investments.
• No screening regime. The foreign investment law was not amended in 2024. Türkiye's regime remains notification-based, without a general screening mechanism.

What 2024 looked like in hindsight

Publishing this edition two years later has one advantage: we can see how the first numbers changed.

• The headline FDI figure was first announced as $11.3 billion, up 5.6%. It now stands at $11.66 billion, up 9.8%. Almost the entire revision sits in intra-company lending.
• The country and sector split was revised too. German equity inflows rose by $105 million in the revised data, American by $50 million.
• UNCTAD's estimate of Türkiye's inward FDI stock moved from $180 billion in its 2025 report to $221 billion in its 2026 report. The first edition showed the stock falling in 2024; the second shows it rising.
• The national accounts were revised as well, lifting 2024 growth from 3.2% to 3.3%.

None of these revisions changes the story of the year, but they are a reminder for anyone reading a fresh annual number: the first estimate is an estimate.

What this means for family-owned businesses

2024 was a harder year to sell a company to a foreign buyer than 2025 turned out to be. The reasons are worth understanding, because they recur.

Currency cycles move buyer appetite. When the lira appreciates in real terms, Turkish assets get more expensive in dollars even when nothing changes inside the business. Owners who track the real exchange rate alongside their own numbers understand more about the timing of foreign interest than those who watch only the nominal rate.

Expensive money favors buyers with their own capital. With the policy rate at 50%, buyers who needed local financing largely stayed away. The transactions that happened were done by strategic buyers and funds paying from their balance sheets.

Concentration is normal in a market this size. A single transaction shaped the year's totals. For an individual owner, headline market data says less than the question of whether two or three credible buyers exist for their specific business.

Prepare through the slow years. Companies that used 2024 to put their accounts, governance and contracts in order were the ones able to move when buyers returned in 2025. Preparation takes months; a buyer's interest often lasts weeks. Our M&A readiness checklist sets out what to fix first, and the Global Readiness Assessment shows where a buyer would apply a discount today.

To discuss what this means for your company, contact us for a confidential conversation. Then read the 2025 edition to see how the market changed.

Figures reflect the central bank's balance of payments as published in July 2026, and other sources as dated in the references. Growth rates, shares and multiples not stated by a source are our own calculations from the published figures.